"This is a huge loss for baseball. George was a true winner. I worked for him for 10 years and we got along great. He was tough guy, but he was also very nice and he had a big heart.

I remember when the annual Winter Meetings were really exciting, guys like George Steinbrenner, Ted Turner (Atlanta Braves) and Brad Corbett (Texas Rangers) really made them something to look forward to - they were always the life of the meetings.

George will be greatly missed and my thoughts and prayers go out to his family and to the Yankees."